You Are The Moon
by Lauren the Oxymoron
Summary: Luna meets someone she didn't expect on a midnight outing.


Disclaimer- I don't own Luna or Cedric or Hogwarts. Neither do I own the title.

A/N- I wrote this at my best friend's request, for her birthday (Happy Birthday, Pame!) She requested a Luna/Cedric fic where Ced doesn't die. Well, this sort of came out differently than she requested or I expected and it's really more of a Luna character piece. But it's not so terrible. There isn't much of a Luna/Cedric following, but I hope someone reads this and actually enjoys it.

The song "You Are The Moon" belongs to The Hush Sound. It is an absolutely beautiful song by an excellent band. Go listen to it.

* * *

_Shadows all around you as you surface from the dark  
Emerging from the gentle grip of night's unfolding arms  
Darkness, darkness everywhere, do you feel all alone?  
The subtle grace of gravity, the heavy weight of stone  
You don't see what you possess, a beauty calm and clear  
It floods the sky and blurs the darkness like a chandelier  
All the light that you possess is skewed by lakes and seas  
The shattered surface, so imperfect, is all that you believe  
I will bring a mirror, so silver, so exact  
So precise and so pristine, a perfect pane of glass  
I will set the mirror up to face the blackened sky  
You will see your beauty every moment that you rise_

Luna glided through the moonlit corridors. To say that she walked was inaccurate, when one is moving about (quite against the rules) in the dead of night, they never walk. It's a cumbersome word for a clumsy action. Usually they tiptoe, passing as a shadow, nothing more than a whisper. And Luna in particular.

The night was her favorite time of day, peaceful and mysterious, not so unlike herself. She continued to glide throughout shadowy corridor dappled by the blue moonlight filtering through the heavy gilded windows. Many people are afraid of the night, and this was something else Luna and the late hours had in common. So many are afraid of the unknown, so they never venture forward, they never let their eyes adjust to the darkness and see that their fear was completely misplaced, and that the night and the darkness wasn't threatening it all. It wasn't that Luna was thought to be dark and dangerous, like the night was, but it was the isolation that Luna could relate to. People are so unwilling to just try to see through the murkiness, that they just avoid it.

That's not to say that Luna didn't have people to talk to. In fact, if one was to judge popularity by how often they were approached and talked to, Luna would most likely by one of the best loved students at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be how it worked. It was curious to Luna, that because of her unpopularity she was actually quite popular. People of all houses, ages and backgrounds would come and talk to Luna. It wasn't as if they seeked her out, like she was some well kept secret of Hogwarts, the philosopher and psychiatrist, but she found that people are often quite willing to talk to someone who had no one else to listen to. People would see her sitting by herself under the big willow tree by the lake and come and tell her their latest problems, they would see her sitting in the library, alone other than a pile of books, and ask her for help with a difficult rune that they couldn't translate and end up telling her about their relationship issues, she would be sitting in the chair in front of the fire in the common room and her housemates would admit to her their own shortcomings and fears. It was as if she invited people to tell their deepest thoughts, to divulge their darkest fears, to appear vulnerable and alone. It was probably because she was safe to confide in, she had no one else to tell these things to. Her status of outcast made her own of the best people to talk to. It was really the most curious paradox.

Maybe some of it was because they pitied her, always apart from the crowd, always by herself, and it was their own little gesture of letting her in on their life. But the more that people came to her to talk with, the more Luna realized that she didn't want to be surrounded by a crowd of people. It was always clear to Luna that those who came to her, sometimes people quite popular by her standards, were just as lonely as she was. Lonelier actually, because they were always surrounded by people, but not people that they could confide in. And in that knowledge, Luna realized that she was quite a bit luckier than some of the most liked and respected people in the school.

Still, she was quite envious of them at times. No matter who had talked to her or how well she had got on with the captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, people were still mean to her. They still stole her things, tripped her in the hallways, laughed at her jewelry. And it wasn't just people she had never talked to before, some of the people doing these things to her were the very ones who had confessed some embarrassment to her not so long ago. It would be quite easy to tell someone what they had admitted to her, but Luna thought that was base and underhanded, and she knew that it was really the person's own loneliness that made them so rude to her. So she forgave them.

The night was Luna's one true friend. It was so welcoming and steady. If anyone could depend on one thing, it was that night would always follow day. That the cruelness of the day would always be soothed by the coolness of night. Luna drifted down another corridor, casually making her way toward the Astronomy Tower. She wanted to see the pale smiling face of the moon, her namesake.

"Who's there?"

The stillness of the night was disturbed by a whisper. Luna didn't freeze guiltily, but rather looked around, trying to find out who had hindered her in her nightly walk as if they were the perpetrator. After a quick scan of the corridor, Luna located a handsome boy in the shadow of a suit of armor. At least, she assumed he would be handsome, judging by the straightness of his nose and the squareness of his jaw. The rest of his face was a shadow.

"What are you doing out? It's forbidden, you know. Which house are you from? I'm afraid I'll have to report you," the voice said, not stepping out from the shadow so Luna was unable to figure out who it was. Obviously someone who was a religious follower of the rules. And someone who had power to report her to Flitwick. Unless it was some other student, out for purely selfish reasons and was trying to deflect their own breach of the rules.

"Well, the Moon is full tonight, and this is the brightest she will appear for all of the year, as all of the Vile White Sky Dwellers have gone into hibernation for the week. Is that why you are out as well?"

"Vile White Sky Dwellers? Do you mean clouds?" The Shadow asked, his voice dripping in skepticism. Obviously whoever he was was one of those who were afraid of the dark, too scared to look through the darkness to reach the other side. He was probably a good friend of that Hermione Granger. For a Gryffindor, Luna had never met someone more afraid of the dark.

"Clouds are what children believe in. The Ministry doesn't want anyone to know that what they call clouds are actually Ministry-controlled apparitions that cloak the skies to hide what the stars are warning us." Luna told the Shadow. "Luckily for us, they can be somewhat fickle and aren't exactly loyal to the Ministry and will occasionally go into hibernation to suit their own selves."

The Shadow was quiet for a bit, as if he was trying to wrestle with the idea that what he had thought were clouds for so long were actually a Ministry-controlled breed. "Who are you?" he said after some part of his mind had won the tussle.

"I'm Luna. I am the Moon."

Again, he seemed to puzzle over this. She couldn't decide if The Shadow was someone who had difficulty accepting something that wasn't written down in a textbook or just someone who was pensive. Maybe it would be easier if he would just step into the moonlight.

"If you aren't out to see the clear night sky, then why are you out?" Luna asked after a pause. It might have been a rude question, but Luna couldn't see any other reason to be out.

The Shadow gave a deep sigh and a strange awkward laugh. "I'm not entirely sure. I like going out at night, when the castle is quiet and there is no one to watch me," he said frankly, surprising Luna a bit, but not too much. She was used to this sort of admission. Who was The Shadow? Obviously someone who was watched or admired by the school. First thoughts would be Harry Potter, but the voice and manner of speaking weren't right. Luna puzzled over it. "You probably think I'm silly," The Shadow said with that same nervous laugh.

"No, I quite understand what you mean. In the night there is no one to judge, we are all the same. I feel the same way you do."

"It's just that everyone expects so much of me, you know? I'm supposed to be a great student, a game-winning Quidditch player, a leader and role model to all of the younger students, and my father expects me to be absolutely perfect... and it's just so much to live up to. Sometimes I just want to turn away from all of their expectations and just do something reckless and selfish. And now, with the Triwizard Tournament, I have to live up to my name on a stage in front of all of the wizarding world. Sometimes I just feel like I can't do it, like all the credit they give me is completely undeserved," The Shadow said, his voice growing more confident and yet more sad as he confided in Luna.

"And that is why you are out here tonight. Because in the darkness we are all the same. In the darkness no one can know who you are or judge you because of who you are," Luna said. It wasn't a question.

"Yes," The Shadow answered, even though it hadn't been a question.

"You aren't silly. I go out in the night sometimes for that same reason. When it is dark, no one is around to laugh at me or say rude things to me. In the dark, no one can tell the difference between me and you. I think that's why some people are so afraid of it. And that's why you aren't silly. Because you understand that but aren't afraid."

The Shadow shifted in the darkness, and a thin shaft of light revealed a sliver of his face: clear skin, a soft mouth, bright eyes and brown hair. He didn't say anything, he just looked at Luna as if he was finally seeing past the Vile White Sky Dwellers that obscured her.

"The Moon is so lovely," Luna said softly. "My father said that he and my mother named me after it because it of the way it reflects the light from the sun and provides his light in the night. She is beautiful, but only because she acts as a mirror for the sun. I am the Moon. And you, Cedric Diggory, are the Sun."

Luna could see the faint line of his mouth hitch up in a smile as she walked away from him, and she seemed to shine even in the shadows, silvery and lustrous.

Cedric Diggory walked slowly away from her, back to the Hufflepuff Common Room and thought that the warmth and confidence that was slowly spreading throughout all of his body had more to do with curious girl he had just met than his midnight walk.


End file.
